Enlivening Juvenile Spirit at cost of Victim’s flesh

In this post, I am attempting to raise following two questions  One, in Juvenile justice, what is more important, juvenile or justice? Second, who do we feel should be the candidate for our compassion and sympathy, the criminal who committed some heinous inhuman act or the innocent victim who suffered for the whims of this immature haughty mind?

Martin Luther king once said “Law and order exists for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress”.

Before an elaboration of facts is made it is imperative that we understand that punishment is awarded for crime committed and if that is diluted then we are indeed acting as catalyst in crime. With these preliminaries I would now like to focus my views on following three points.

1. What should be the right age for someone to be considered juvenile and should the age or nature of crime decide course of justice?

UNICEF a fraternity dedicated to children considers 13 years as the age for someone to be categorized as a child. The concept of minor is not sharply defined in most jurisdictions. For example in United States drinking and keeping arms is not permitted till age of 21, but criminal responsibilities are fixed after age of 12. In Britain though person below 16 is minor but criminal responsibly is fixed after age of 10. Our very own Indian Penal Court 1865 considers offense committed by a minor under 7 as no crime and between age 7 to 12 the course of action should depend on severity of crime, circumstances and mental maturity of offenders. The amendments made in 2000 have arbitrarily set the age of juvenile as 18 years based on internal recommendations not on any predicament under Beijing convention of UNO. Studies conducted have shown that 65 % of juvenile crimes in last two years were committed by people in age group of 16 to 18 years. The parliament in August 2014 has indeed taken right step in lowering the age to 16 again. I would like to stress here that age set in no way grants impunity to offenders to commit murders, do drug trafficking, commit crimes against women or indulge in terrorist act and later show the birth certificate that one is only 15 yrs 11 month so that grants them a kind of license for these evil acts. This is mockery of law. If the crime is heinous the punishment should be equally severe so that it acts like a deterrent for anyone else from repeating that act.

2. What should we try to change, an individual criminal or this growing tendency to crime?

It is true that no one is a born criminal and development of psyche has correlation with circumstances and conditions that people grow up with. This argument that a child born in nation has certain fundamental rights and abuse to those is core reason that breeds criminals should not be mixed up and end up showing solidarity and mercy to those who have acted and harmed innocent in cold blood and unbroken conscience. I would like to ask all those who justify criminals on the basis of upbringing and social injustices, don’t victims a have a right? In my opinion instead of trying to reform a proven criminal, we should try to use them by granting exemplary punishments that will inhibit others to follow their path. The attempt should be to curb the tendency to crime rather that to show consideration to heinous crimes on basis of who committed them. A clear distinction is necessary between a child attempting to steal bread or bicycle from one attempting to assault dignity of women.

3. How to make rehabilitation really effective?

No civilized society can afford to believe in retributive justice .Reform and transformation should indeed be the purpose of imprisonment even in adults. It is unfortunate that jails and rehabilitation centers have become just places in isolation where all rotten eggs are kept together to prevent the stink from getting out. In such environment even a minor offender graduates out to be a mastermind culprit who is a real danger to the society. The rehabilitation centers should have psychologists and psychiatrists and above all a caring environment so that circumstantial offenders can be reformed and brought in main stream. But, here a distinction is to be made that such privilege should be restricted only to those who are not guilty of heinous or anti national crimes because showing mercy on them is injustice to victims of their act. It is important to understand that an injustice done anywhere will lead to injustice everywhere.

To recapitulate, I would only like to say that to err is human and to forgive divine but if your eraser ends before pencil you certainly are overdoing it. Fredrick Robertson once said “three things in this world deserve no mercy, hypocrisy, tyranny and fraud” .I modify that statement as, three crimes in this world deserve no mercy these are, crimes against humanity, against women and against nation.

Colours of nature

I was in Dhauladhar range of mountains in Himachal last week. The beauty of hills is not at specific tourist attraction points rather, it is spread all around . As Dale Carnegie puts it, "One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today "

Truly, all one need is the sight and sense to see and feel that beauty all around. because we really do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.  Below are some pictures that prove that the nature has its own way  kaleidoscopic canvas with ephemeral colors that change with time of day. 

Here are two photos of morning  that show sun rays finding there way through trees and plants

then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

  

And then ,the day begins to end and the nature begins to spread all its colors in the sunsets ,These photos were taken in span of total ten minutes but  notice the changing colors over mountains.

 

It would not be out of place to quote this beautiful poem by Chelsea Poshini

Have you seen the Sunset and Sunrise

And the Horizon that's a prize

How the colors mix and melt

And look as soft as felt

How they float away into black

As you wish them back

And that feeling that makes you sad

How the tears come and just make you mad

But then you see the stars

That are so small they could fit in jars

Now there are so many

You'd buy each one with a penny

How they shine so bright

And don't put up a fight

So you stand watching them twinkle and shine

Then you realize you feel fine

So you sigh

And say goodbye.

Take care , observe the  surroundings, stay healthy and be happy Always.....

Wise after Event

If the responses on social media are any indicator, whole country seems to be jubilant at the news of Kailash Satyarthi being jointly awarded the Noble prize 2014 for peace in recognition of  his work on prevention of child labor . The question that arises in my mind is what really is more important in our society to get appreciation and acceptance? Is it Great work or Great award?

Where were we, the Indians, since 1990 when he started his work on combating the child labor? Where were all the admirers who post his photo today, when he was struggling to set up and fund his NGO? US has given him at least 7 awards, Spain, Germany, Netherlands all have applauded and awarded combat of his group for freeing the children of tender age from clutches of brutal and inhuman labor. One is forced to think where was our Indian Government all these years? More importantly where was our ubiquitous media, whose priority seems to be reporting affairs of film stars and tantrum of politicians while the positive and inspiring work of such hidden heroes does not come to lime light till it gets recognition from across the borders. 

Isn't it sad, that talent of music maestro like Vishva Mohan Bhatt was recognized in our country only after he got Grammy Award? Isn't it pathetic that we could not offer a respectable job to likes of Har Govind Khurana, who had to migrate to revolutionize the world of bio science with his work on interpretation of the "genetic code and its function in protein synthesis". As a countryman it is justified to feel pride in achievement of an Indian but shouldn't we be ashamed of ourselves that such people exist in our neighborhood but we fail to identify them till they get recognition from across seven seas. Although we have got independence from British decades ago, the cobweb and fungus of colonial mindset still layers our minds. Irony is, inspiring leaders , passionate anthropologists and talented craftsmen exists among us but they are often opposed, ridiculed, scorned, bullied and even beaten till they get appreciation and award from west and then masses, media and so called system of our country share their photos and make them angels. 

The second important thing is we are a ‘person centrist’ and not an ‘issue centrist society’. We don't follow the ideals and thoughts of person .Instead, we make their idol , garland them and sing praise in their name. In this process people are transformed into super heroes in lime light and the cause they stood for becomes gets marginalized on side lines. It will be interesting to see how many of these people who are singing songs of his laurels join hands and come to support his NGO "Bachapan Bachao Aandolan"(Save Childhood Movement)? There are reports that many children he freed were forced to go back to work because of hunger and poverty that prevails in those families. Isn't somewhere , someone responsible and accountable for human resource development and for ensuring that at least children get basic education and two square meals.

Majority of our output from our premium institutes like IITs and IIMs settles abroad and not all of them go there just for more dollars. In our holy land, they don't want a scientist to remain a scientist, they want to make him an officer. We transform them into an elite head clerk who can sign applications and tenders and write useless committee reports. Whereas, a fertile mind wants to do work on the chosen field of specialization that one has passionately pursued. He or she wants a laboratory , equipment , books, fellow researchers , students to pursue their passion . Their  priorities are not a plush office with 9 to 5 mockery with dictation from ministerial authorities who don't know S of science R of research or E of education.

If we really have to become a progressive society then we have to be rational in our approach, sensitive in our observations and sensible in our actions . We have to develop sense of right and wrong within us because wisdom is in setting correct course before and during event as "even a fool is wise after the event ".